


The Heart of Babylon

by xSukunas_Toy_Gojos_Bitchx



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gilgamesh (Fate) Being Gilgamesh (Fate), Gilgamesh (Fate) Being an Asshole, Holy Grail War (Fate), Major Original Character(s), Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:01:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22635592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSukunas_Toy_Gojos_Bitchx/pseuds/xSukunas_Toy_Gojos_Bitchx
Summary: It is said throughout history, that if a spirits wish is strong enough they, and their wish, are given real life and a single chance to execute their desire. For Gilgamesh, the 5th Sumerian King, there was nothing he desired more than ruling absolutely and acquiring wealth unabashedly.Wanting nothing more than to rule supreme with ultimate power that was partially granted to him by the ancient gods, his lust for power and the strength to achieve it made him lose sight of how to rule as a king should.When the gods sent Enkidu down to punish him there ended up being virtually no force that could crush their combined efforts. Ultimately this cost both Enkidu and Gil their lives as first one then the other fell victim to the gods' wrath.Centuries later when the parallel world of Gilgamesh's kingdom opens again courtesy of Chaldea's involvement, the now revived king faced a demonic horde instead of a plague sent to crush his ambition. So what happens when the help he summons comes in the form of an untrained woman with a power none have ever seen?
Relationships: Enkidu | False Lancer/Gilgamesh | Archer, Gilgamesh | Caster/Original Character(s), Merlin | Caster/Original Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. The Curse

creates a power surge, and you wake up in an unknown world with only a sword, a shield, and a time limit."

This story follows the plot of Fate Grande Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylon (The Seventh Singularity) with the addition of an OC and minor plot twists. It is an adjusted retelling as represented by TYPE-MOON for the FGO Mobile game FATE GRANDE ORDER and borrows the characters and concepts known to the fandom therein mentioned. 

For those not familiar with the Anime, I encourage you to either watch it on Crunchyroll or go to FANDOM and search Babylon Seventh Singularity. There will be no training wheels for entering into this story, but those familiar with the legend of Gilgamesh shouldn't really miss too much. 

For my FGO Family only, this story will drastically ruin my plans for LFW and its frustrating but maybe I won't give too much away ;)

#OpenNovellaContest2020

\------------------------------

Do you live the way you die?  
Do you lie the way you cry?  
With heaven's open wounds crashing down amongst your sins,  
As the world around you screams the agony, you bely?  
Do your demons storm the Eden you create?  
Or do they hide behind the walls assaulted by the hounds of fate?  
Their bloodlust aimed at tyrannic chains,  
Bound to God's and Man's unwritten constraints.  
Shall we sing the song of your demise?  
As we burry your endless horde amongst the sandy skies?  
Or will the ring that halo's heaven's tainted lament,  
Provide a savior time has not already spent?

The pendulum of time swings towards death as quickly as it swings towards life. It matters not how ancient the civilization or how royal the blood. When the heart gives out and its punishment for the history it wrote with its existence ceases, the carcass of its choices fall to the living to burry or to superseded with the next swing; adding or subtracting force as it wills. There is no force made by man or nature that can halt this, nor can it be stolen back. It can only be mourned.

So as the dark blue-black clouds roiled with the mirrored hatred Archer Gilgamesh felt for the Gods who toyed with the lives they ruled, he knelt on the edge of the crude cliffs outside of his Sumerian kingdom and cradled the dying essence of what had become the Heart of his personal Babylon. 

Though Enkidu had been sent to destroy him for being a tyrant and insufferable king to his people, the two of them had found after their hard-won battle that raged and raged until both had nothing left to give that they were more kin than kith. From that moment on, they had been inseparable. Every raid, every adventure they had traversed together until Gilgamesh's kingdom and his achievements rivaled those of the gods themselves. It would be after the felling of the tallest tree in the Cedar Forest and subsequent killing of Humbaba who guarded it that Enkidu had a dream where either he or Gilgamesh must choose to die in order to pay for their atrocities against the land and the Gods. Before the two decided, Enlil chose Enkidu, who suddenly falls ill and dies after grotesque suffering. 

Now, as his fallen piece of heaven rots away in his arms atop the cliff outside their sand dried kingdom, returning to the earth from whence he was made, the sky opens in electric torment similar to the discharged life leaving Enkidu's body. With each strike amongst the clouds and rumble of boiling dissent amongst their pregnant vaporous shapes, the sky begins to weep the tears that Gilgamesh cannot shed.

Tilting his dull golden hair now matted into his deep garnet eyes up to the heavens, he listens to the rain increase in force while beating its life against his lifeless friend as if each pelting drop can resuscitate the pale skin despite it doing nothing more than eroding it away; returning him to the mud he had been born from.

As Enkidu's body crumbles in his arms, Gilgamesh mouths a curse that is lost in the roiling sea that beats against the rocks the same way his half-formed and grief riddled madness rages against his core. "Fear the force I will wreak when once again, I challenge the sky with the very purity you have stolen from me this day."

Then a bolt thick with heavens hatred and bridled judgment descends to crash upon the earth at the edge of the cliff, alighting the monochrome scene in flashes of gold and red the color of blood before the king disappears and the ancient world moves on. The only proof of the previous events a slowly disintegrating pile of sodden sand.


	2. The Last of the Seven Demons of the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Destructive storms and evil winds are they,  
> A storm of evil, presaging the baneful storm,  
> A storm of evil, forerunner of the baneful storm.  
> Mighty children, mighty sons are they,  
> Messengers of Namtar are they,  
> Throne-bearers of Ereshkigal.  
> The flood driving through the land are they.  
> Seven gods of the wide heavens,  
> Seven gods of the broad earth,  
> Seven robber gods are they.  
> Seven gods of universal sway,  
> Seven evil gods,  
> Seven evil demons,  
> Seven evil and violent demons,  
> Seven in heaven, seven on earth.  
> -Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book "Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria" 1911

At the same time Gilgamesh’s curse reached the heavens it was caught up in the machinations of a greater evil. Born as a curse from a different time and a different death this evil manifested as a demon beast known as Goetia, one of the 72 demon familiars of Solomon bound to him by his ten rings on his fingers and able, in their demon form, to take action to conquer what they saw as the imperfectness of humans through their ability to manipulate historical events. 

Though at the time Gilgamesh’s curse was spoken the true course of history was running, the purity of its retelling was soon tainted as Goetia, much like Gilgamesh’s own curse, ripped through the fabric of time to directly influence those called to battle to witness the end of the Age of Gods and the destruction of mankind in an Alter Babylonia. Here Gilgamesh would rule again, but as a much wiser and well-loved king defending against a horde only legend proclaimed he had faced in a vain attempt to salvage his once dead kingdom.

So as time split open to Goetia’s foul will, Gilgamesh’s curse caught the draft of a parallel current far in the future where a girl in her mid-twenties lay fast asleep while a storm raged outside her windows, wrought by a goddess of the earth whose life cycle, much like Enkidu's, had been thrown off by the inconsiderate use of her natural resources in a time far more advanced and magically devoid than Gilgamesh’s own. 

With time briefly distorted and the catalyst to his revenge within grasp, the conjoined manifestation of Gilmagesh’s anger and Enkidu’s pure soul slipped through time to possess a dream yet unrealized by a woman not bound by histories laws or magic’s design. Riding against the natural current of time on a stray bolt of God's wrath, Gilgamesh's curse pierced space and time. Flooding the skies of Tokyo as the bolt illuminated the clouds far beyond the emotional crimes of petty Gods it shot towards the surface and colliding with a power source below. Ripping instantly through cables at the power grid it traveled towards, the sound of it exploding as it hit the ground expelled enough energy to overload the power station and crack loud enough for Rhaeyn Takanome to clearly hear the impact from six blocks away as she lay curled up in bed asleep; her T.V. still playing a rerun of Ancient Aliens on the History Channel.

Startling her awake as all the power in her room went out, she reached for her phone to see if it was charged. "Guess the fucking powers out. Maybe I can actually get some restful sleep instead of listening to the obnoxious hum of all those damn neon signs and generators outside my window." Yawning, she quickly snuggled down and went back to sleep.

As the therapeutic sound of rain beat against the window and her consciousness lulling her towards a false sense of security, the curse that had wafted across the concrete jungle slid up the side of her apartment and through the deteriorated seal in the corner of her window sill. Traveling through the blackness of her room as an indiscernible miasma, it floated over to the life signs present in her body and hovered there a moment as if judging if it had found its prey. Then when the next strike of lightning across the sky briefly lit her room, the curse entered her body swiftly through her nose as she breathed in the soul of a foreign curse and expelled the last breath of her previous life.

Being ancient and all-encompassing, following no natural paths of modern medicine but being directly tied to Gilgamesh's very existence, the curse seeped quickly into her bloodstream before traveling directly to her heart. Once there, it coalesced into each chamber where it lay palpating its message of hate back to its source like an ancient morse code of the damned.

As each palpation rang out like a gong, seven subsequent stars in the skies above Goetia’s Alter Babylonia flared in brilliance to the same beat, announcing that the final piece of the grande game of gods and man had fallen into place. Needing no one to announce such a monumentous event to the Gilgamesh is that time since the beating matched the rhythm of his own heart still sick with the contained hatred and anger of the curse that drove him, Gilgamesh mounted the sun-dried sand stairs leading from the throne room of his ziggurat to the uppermost platform where the inky blue skies pulsed out the message of days to come.

"So, you will arrive, Chaldea? The lone candlelight illuminates many a star! Then, come forth! To this land where the times of gods and deeds of humans intersect!"

Raising his arms up and out to his sides he called to the heaven's as they beat with the life of foreign gods, celestial rebellion, and the life of Gilgamesh's last human sacrifice. Though in days to come Rhae would think it all a dream, adamantly knowing she had been woken from sleep in her room in Tokyo by a freak power surge caused by a bolt of lightning that seemed far more volatile than was natural, the words Gilgamesh cried out to the deaf ears of petulant gods in a cloudless sky rang clear in her mind as she lay sleeping. As each syllable left his lips, timed perfectly with the rhythmic beat of her heart, her dreams began to visualize unfamiliar smells as her ears picked up foreign trills and distant cries not native to her daily life in the city. Marveling on a subconscious level at the sheer richness of her oncoming dream, her mind once again went blank before a hazy blue light surrounded her and a voice said, "You have been summoned to answer the call. Though not of a history written by man's deeds you are the future of man's potential combined with the lineage of man's successes. Altered by the will of a god, you have become the shield for his kingdom and the sword for his righteousness. Do you accept this burden even though refusal isn't an option?"

"Hmmngh?" Her groggy mind mumbled as she fought to regain temporary consciousness; a response apparently is taken as assent as within moments the world became peaceful again and Rhae fell-into a deeper sleep lulled by the sounds of foreign birds as the pure winds that smelled like beach sand carried her mind away.

From this moment on what would be known as the Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, The Seventh Singularity would ensue. It would force seven servants, all of which would be historical manifestations of people, to embark on a mission to secure both Uruk, the Babylonian Kingdom ruled by King Gilgamesh, and the holy grail brought to Babylon by the demon Goetia; a demon bent on transferring all humans into energy as it rewrote the truth of the world without humans. 

Using three gods of Uruk and the potential of a personal wish being granted to the possessor of the item he bestowed known as the holy grail, Goetia would attempt to eradicate humanity's existence using a demon horde and servants it would bestow on the three gods. The seven servants of Gilgamesh would then have to fend off attacks from god and demon alike as the grail produced wave after wave of demon hordes while the team continued to investigate the source of the unnatural evil plaguing the kingdom and humanity before the grail fell into the wrong hands and all human life is eradicated from one curse or another.


	3. Spirit Walk: Prophetic Reality

_"Sometimes, sinners do saintly deeds, while saints sin."_

_-Francis Drake in her pirate ship off the coast of Okeanos_

_\------------------------------------------------------------_

As soon as the smell of the beach grazed Rhae's tongue the essence of her dream state changed to one tainted with the carnage of death as rotting and burnt flesh assaulted her senses at the same time an image of a broken history long past ravaged her mind. Forced to watch passively the cinematic horrors before her, she witnessed waves upon waves of sacrificial flesh bore into the earth while man fought man in a war written in pictures on a tablet frozen in time; unaware of its meaning yet living its passionate rebellion. With catapults, spikes and man-made weapons driven by the hand or flung towards heaven where their descent would pierce the body but not the heart of a world gone mad, the kingdom of man would reap what it sowed as a man-made god turned a blind eye while his soul tainted more and more with each subsequent death.

Unable to be more than the innocent face of a passing lens, Rhae panned the beginning and the end as life turned to death and sun-scorched earth turned to veins of blood, pulsing the fading existence of man's hopes and desires with each failing breath of the severed and impaled tangible dreams she passed. When her body could take no more and attempted to purge the very hate she could not process from the lungs she wished to no longer use to draw breath and the stomach she could no longer sate with earthly desires, the olive face of an enthroned foreign king jeweled and draped in silks overtook the scene. Shaking with laughter as if the bloodshed was an irony of man's own design he held his head smeared with a wicked smile that lacerated all hope.

Crowning the madness on a seat of blue and white stone, carved sun rays and a crescent moon unfinished at its peak jutted out behind and around him as if the moon, not the sun, was illuminating him from a godly realm well beyond humanity. As the image panned out, Rhae saw a kingdom of floating rocks and jagged peaks that framed this farse in the distance. Before she could fathom what fate she was witnessing, a blue flame erupted from the ground at the man's feet before descending up to create a flaming circle as an oily demonic voice slipped past the walls her mind attempted to construct.

_"The king had eyes to see into the past and the future, but he stood by._

_The king saw all the world's struggles Kiki and sorrows, but he stood by._ _Ignorance might have excused him, but even enlightened, he only laughed._ _This man can never be forgiven._ _Here, future generations may read of our fury, and follow in our footsteps._ _Construct a temple!Build a band of light!_ _Find the path to the Final Singularity.That is where the throne of the King of Mages resides._ _The name of the plane is Solomon._ _The end of the very end._ _The altar of spinning time._ _The hope at the very beginning."_

_-Absolute Demonic Front: Babylon Episode 7: Diversionary Operation_

That's when the man's eyes turned towards her; black irises framing blood-red pupils as his pure white hair caught a putrid breeze, emphasizing the severe slant of his jaw and the sadistic curve of his lips that smiled like a man ready to devour a long forbidden fruit.

"Solomon." She whispered with immediate regret.

Though she was not sure he actually saw or heard her, the thought didn't seem improbable. Wishing not to move to test the theory, she held his sickening gaze until his hand raised palm up as if inviting her to join him. Feeling a surreal tug from her core, her body tried to lurch forward but she held firm. Seemingly unconcerned, Solomon gazed down at the upturned flesh a moment before a soft light enveloped it. When the light subsided, seven miniatures golden grails alighted in his palm and hovered there before shining brightly and changing into seven identical marble worlds that sparkled like tiny stars.

Marveling at their beauty but feeling oncoming darkness she could not describe, Rhae watched as blue flame suddenly enveloped six of the worlds, turning them to floating ash. With the others gone, the last stood triumphant, creating a ray of hope that pierced her heart and formed the whisper of a smile. But just as the curves of her lips arced up to the heavens of her mind, the final marble world caught aflame leaving the last image she saw a black iris and a red pupil surrounded by a field of wispy white.

She could feel herself sobbing and gasping for air as an indescribable horror wracked her body. No longer sure if she was still dreaming or if she had somehow lost her mind she spun around in a now-empty sea of white, panic-stricken and afraid. Unable to tell up from down, she fell to her knees and grasped her head in her shaking hands as she curled into herself wishing to awake from whatever hell she had found herself in.

"Such fear, such uncertainty. And to think this is what that soul has come to. Well, fear not for I have waited in the Age of Gods for you to come. All you have to do is come with me and you will be saved."

There was a resonance to the male tenor that snared her conscious' cabalistic spiral. Though she had never heard it before in the flesh, every fiber of her being told her it was someone she knew more intimately than her own self though why that was she could not say. Rising slowly she turned to face it, but as her peripheral caught a glimpse of light green hair and eyes set in a pale peach face, a sea of cherry blossom petals divided them.

Propelled by a synchronization only known to migratory birds in flight, the petals soon surrounded her and became so dense they were the only thing she saw. Then, unexpectedly, a strong yet soft hand cupped her cheek and the petals vanished leaving her now open eyes to take in a breathtaking night sky, a small fire, and a wild-haired effeminate man dressed in elaborate white, pink, purple and black robes. With soft yet mischievous eyes he rested a hand on her cheek as the other cradled the back of her head.

Dazed and confused, yet surprisingly unafraid, she breathed in deeply as her consciousness fought to understand the situation she was in, the images she had seen while asleep and this world where foreign trees rustled while the faint smell of beach sand fought to bury her dreams in the waves of consciousness she was unable to fully grasp while staring into the marble worlds she watched die not moments before; her head resting on a man-made platformless throne of flesh and blood instead of detached humanity.


	4. Introductions: The Id and the Ego

_"No matter what time you are in, ordinary humans are the ones who make stars fall."_

_-Merlin outside of Kutha in Ishtar's territory as the team looks for the Tablet of Destiny_

\-----------------------------

Held in thrall by a timeless storm trapped in a set of marble orbs, the eyes Rhae found herself lost in embodied the hope found in chaos as they swirled with every pale color of the rainbow never committing to one nor negating another. Temporarily unphased by the compromising position she should be aware she was in as her head rested in the lap of a man she couldn't remember knowing, she detachedly saw herself reaching up to run her fingers gently through his voluminous white, layered tresses. Lost entirely to his will as if her heart was now consumed in a fresh dream she wished never to wake from; her remaining conscious marveled at her lack of concern for her familiarity with the man currently  
supporting her.

A soft-eyed smile tracing his lips as the words he spoke poured like honey; the man addressed her without a hint of malice. "It would seem almost as if you were expecting me, my lady, and if that were so, then I shall continue to find comfort in your presence until the fire dies and..."

That's when a fluffy white blur slammed into the side of the man's face knocking him over before attacking him furiously as he lay prone on his back.

"Merlin, keep your lecherous thoughts to yourself." A young, reserved, and very irritated female voice interjected behind and to the left of Rhae.

Broken from what could only be seen as a trance as her body jerked off the lap it had rested on before falling on its side, Rhae blinked several times before sitting up and looking up as she assessed her surroundings. Unable to bring to words to the astronomical beauty that roofed her current existence, she stared agape at a sky littered with tiny specs of ground glass backdropped in hombre colors of blue and black. Though she couldn't deny these were not the skies of the home she knew, she was hesitant to believe they were the skies of a world extinct to history in all but books and mobile games.

"Uruk is beautiful. It's quite a shame we have to see it under such circumstances." The sweet, lightly passionate voice of the man named Merlin, no longer accosted, breaks the silence as the rabbit built more like a chihuahua with a mane similar to Merlins' hops into Rhae's lap before nuzzling her for attention.

"Hello, little one." Her smile was fleeting as she looked down at the cute creature she knew only existed in a fictional realm before turning a much more unsure gaze on the man perpendicular to her as he sat on a log. If what the man called Merlin said was true, and this was Uruk, and he was actually who he said he was, then she was staring at what might be the man, the myth the legend she had always fantasized about meeting. Taking in his attire, demeanor, and fluffy accomplice, however, it also meant the Merlin of this story wasn't entirely 'historically' accurate. Born from an amalgamation of history and lore, this was none other than the Grand Caster known only to the mobile game Fate Grande Order.

Wishing to solidify her assumptions, she took the plunge and addressed the elephant in the room, "I take it you are THE Merlin? 'The great Mage of the Isle of Britain born of a human and an incubus who guided King Arthur to the throne and served as court mage? One of the world's greatest kingmakers and the world's biggest scoundrel? The Grande Mage who shouldn't be able to die until the end of the world? The Merlin who built a tower in the utopia of Avalon, and watches over the world from there, never dying?' (ep: 2: Fortress City: Uruk) Merlin whose clairvoyance is comparable to Gilgamesh's and second only to Solomon?" At the mention of his name Rhae shudders and suddenly pales.

"All that is true, but as far as clairvoyance, I would say given the nature of what I see, we are all parts of the same formula of time. Where Solomon's eyes can see the past and the future and Gilgamesh can see only the future, 'I can see only the present for if the present is lost, I am no more than a lonely man staring at the Garden in my tower.' (ep: 2 Fortress City: Uruk)"

"I see. And you would be?" Rhae turned to face the small hooded figure with a waist-long purple braid and long side bangs whose face was hidden by a large cuneiform eye on the hood of her black and purple trimmed cloak that had remained motionless as she leaned her back against a tree after her appearance.

"Her name is Ana. She is..."

"A servant correct? As are you? Though only you are in the service of King Gilgamesh as his court mage of sorts, are you not?"

Smiling his unmistakable carefree smile that hinted at infinite machinations going on deep within its recesses, Merlin casually inquired, "If you knew, why then did you ask?"

"Principle. It is hard for me to grasp the dynamic I find myself in. Especially with..." Her face pales again as the magnitude of what she saw in her dream hits her like a truck.

"Though dreams, at least the second part was also tangible. If you had followed Enkidu, you would have been lost; I fear since, in reality, he should be deep within the underworld now. How he infiltrated your dreams, I am unsure, but it does not bode well for events yet to come."

"And the first? That was the history of the Singularities. That was Solomon in his madness after possessing the final of the 72 demons, and falling victim to the darkness created by man and demon alike, was it not?"

His face grim, Merlin nods. "That is correct. Though why you saw that, again, I can not claim to understand. You are not of this world, correct?"

Rhae nods.

"That means you were summoned. If that is the case, then you must be the reason Gilgamesh sent me out here."

Squinting an eye in skepticism, Rhae inquires, "And what makes you deduce that? Can a girl not be lost in the woods alone?"

"That she can, but dressed like that, I would guess she has some rather unique purpose."

Blushing slightly at the feigned slight, her petulant retort leaves her lips thoughtlessly, "These clothes are quite practical for sleeping and lounging around the house thank you very much!"

Merlin laughs heartily. "We will have to make sure to find you something more appropriate once we get to Uruk and meet the king. Especially since he will be interested to hear how you know the things you do about our current situation, assuming he doesn't already know. It is always good to make a strong first impression with men like him none the less."

"More appropriate, my ass. He's not my king, nor should any of this be real." Her reserved frustration and confusion evident in the sharpness of her tone.

That's when Merlin reaches out and pokes her cheek with the sharp butt of his staff. "The illusion of reality is founded on belief. What the mind believes, the body follows until there is nothing left but time and the idea of the tangible. Were you not affected on a visceral level when you saw the battlefield of Solomon's past when his kingdom was overthrown and his sanity destroyed? You were not there, yet your mind believed the horrors were creating a physical reaction that your body couldn't resist or deny. Never second guess the power of your mind over the will of your body. Know thyself and to thy self be true."

Scoffing, Rhae turned her eyes back to the stars. "I can see why Arthurs' kingdom was so successful until love tore it apart. Such wisdom of the ages you have mage of flowers. It is a shame it is held within such a useless body." Then she tilts her head with a teasing smile towards Merlin. "Not that I need to fuel your ego, but you have always been my favorite mage. At least until recently." Then a soft, loving smile crossed her lips as her mind began to wander onto a clean-cut blonde of average height with a blunt personality, intense thirst for knowledge, and lean but muscular build who ruled over many but possessed none until the day his kingdom supposedly fell to a force even his half-divine powers couldn't withstand.


	5. Serpent of Old

On the wings of the morn, I shall call you.  
In the shadows of reality, I shall bind you.  
In the silence of your horizon, I shall watch you.  
Over the passage of time, I shall find you.  
Until the soul you keep  
Matches the heart that beats  
And the world comes to balance  
In his crushing defeat.

We are one.  
Two separate pieces  
Fighting different memories  
Living different realities.  
But what's mine is mine  
And what's yours is negotiable.  
Until there is nothing left to barter  
Except for the space you used to exist in;  
The space where hardened clay  
Met heavenly tears  
And drown two lives  
In a world gone mad with treacherous past times.

\-------------------------------------

The sun shone brightly through the trees casting the world in a golden glow the color of wheat at its prime highlighted by the yellow of a minted gold coin. It bore into Rhae's eyelids with a fluctuating intensity only plausible by branches swaying in a light breeze. Breathing in the sweet fragrance of nature as her eyes squinted in protest, she carefully opened her consciousness to an unnatural calm. Rising slowly, she turned one slow circuit in place as her eyes grazed over an endlessly uneven forest whose shadows flirted with the rising rays of the sun in a supernatural game of tag.

When she came back to center, she closed her eyes and took one last breath in and held it; willing the tension in her body to release.

One…

Two…

"Rhae…"

Spinning around behind her, eyes wide and breath blown out in shock, Rhae caught the tail end of green as it disappeared behind a tree twenty yards in front of her despite the voice sounding like it had been right next to her.

"I've found you Rhae…"

Spinning fifteen degrees to her right, she catches the white of a robe and bare heel of a man of average height as green hair catches flight behind his form now only fifteen feet from her.

"Let's be friends…"

Now he is back behind her as half his body peers at her from behind a tree not ten feet from her when she spins and almost falls to face him. When her eyes meet his, however, the initial friendly smile turns into a half-crazed toothy grin as his initially warm eyes widen; the pupils retracting down to pinpricks as the iris takes on the sickeningly endless white space of the room inside her nightmare the last time they met.

"Don't be afraid. All you have to do is…" That's when his shoulders hunch as his body curls down like a loaded spring before release. Unable to break his sadistic gaze, all Rhae can do is stand in abject fear as his body gets tighter and tighter before…

Then the moment of release happens at the same time a dull clink of what sounds like metal hitting rock resonates behind her right shoulder. As the vibrations roll through the ground towards the figure from her nightmare, its body lurches forward towards her with murderous intent.

Though it happened fast, it would haunt her for many nights to come. As the figure Merlin had named Enkidu flew forward, his body started disintegrating into cherry blossom petals as soon as it hit the vibrations from his staff that had created a ring of tremors in the earth. By the time Enkidu's body came face to face with Rhae, his arms and face were all that was left. When seconds later the last tangible pieces tried to wrap its arms around her in a death grip of the reassuringly abusive all she felt was the soft falling of petals as his last word caressed her ear.

"…die."

Though her eyes saw the world continue as the branches created shade from the sun and the sounds of animals once missing from her waking moments began their morning rituals, it felt like her existence alone had stopped. Her body shook uncontrollably and her eyes remained open wide as if closing them even a little would bring about a demon in her periphery that would take the life Enkidu had come to claim. It wouldn't be until Merlin's melodic hum soothed her nerves as his finger came to trace strange patterns on her forehead.

When his finger stopped, coming to rest at the bridge of her nose, Rhae found her eyes coming back to focus on the rainbow-colored orbs of her companion mage.

"Mer…what was that?" Her voice was shaky despite her composure returning.

Pushing her head slightly as he removed his finger, Merlin jested, "You mean that rune of protection I put on your forehead? Just a little something to keep the demons at bay, or at least, out of your mind."

"Not that, you selectively literal rogue I mean the…" then an image of Enkidu's sadistic grin caused her face to pale.

"You mean him." The caster's voice was now serious. "It would seem he is exactly as he claims, though his mana signature is slightly off and his existence should definitely be less than tangible. Despite all that, it seems we are slightly more of a target than I had anticipated so we might want to get a move on."

"Are we headed to Uruk then?" Rhae's interest suddenly peaked.

"That is correct my lady for it was always the intent to bring you there to meet the king."

There wasn't much to say after that point, though Merlin did his best to create casual small talk. Knowing nothing soothed a worried heart like the familiarity of one's surroundings, he attempted to fill in the gaps regarding parts of the world Rhae didn't know as they traversed the open plains of grass and sand that covered the lands around Uruk.

"So I am still confused. I need clarification on the Three Goddess Alliance since nothing like it seems to exist in any of the knowledge I have immersed myself in up to this point."

"The Three Goddess Alliance was formed between Tiamat, the goddess of all creation, Quetzalcoatl, and Ereshkigal at the peak of Wise King Gilgamesh's rule in an attempt to end all humanity, leaving only the gods to rule as they saw fit. In order to enact this annihilation of all humanity, they summoned hordes of demons to assault the city of Uruk. It was then that the King summoned his own servants to help defend the city and its surrounding area, thus preserving the signature of human life. It is also the crossroads at which we now stand.

Without realizing where they were or how far she had traveled, Rhae followed the gesture of Merlin's arms as she looked out over a steep cliff just outside the gates of Uruk. With eyes filled with awe at the cities size and horror as waves of monsters crashed against its massive gates she felt once again dumbstruck at the site that layout before her.

"What you stare at is the last bastion of hope for humanity. 'If the Demonic Beasts bring down Uruk, human history is finished right there. Therefore, what you need to do is search for the Holy Grail that the King of Mages sent to this era and retrieve it, and take down the Three Goddess Alliance.'" (Merlin ep. 2: Fortress City: Uruk)

"So it all begins once we get to Uruk?" Rhae's voice vibrating with both excitement and trepidation.

"That is correct. That is where you will meet the most tyrannical king who severed ties with the gods after telling them they were too arrogant. Claiming all beautiful women and treasure as his own, he will kill you regardless of you agreeing or disagreeing with his opinion."

Smiling knowingly, Rhae replied, "I would expect nothing less from the King of Heroes who was born of both a god and a human. It is amazing that, in his youth, he was fond of people and acclaimed for his grounding in reason. To have grown into quite the opposite suggests a failure of either the world or the system with which he resided in."

That's when her smile faded. "Say Mer?"

"Yes?" His response attentive and curious as he pets the small rabbit chihuahua perched on his shoulder.

"Do you supposed…" Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Rhae turned to look behind her before continuing. "Do you suppose the Enkidu who haunts me is the manifestation of that very failure in its raw form. An unrelenting, unquestioning, sole purpose-driven failure whose only task is to end things before they began so there can never again be that innocence between two men newly born of both the sand and one's own revived morality?"

When the mage does not respond, Rhae turns to look at eyes now tainted at the corner with profound sadness. "It is my hope that is not the case my dear, but if it is I pray that you are here to remind the king that humanity is more than just a pretty face and a fleeting memory."


	6. Kingdom In The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Crossing the threshold of time dressed as one fully immersed in its fabric, Rhae phased between the dream believed to be reality and the reality one could only dream of as sun-kissed and brightly garbed bodies went about daily tasks; hawking wares and conversing throughout a civilization so contradictory to historical convention that it was hard to perceive why any god would punish the man who harbored such sophisticated civility.

With golden roads clean of debris, children littering alleys unafraid of the monsters modern society confined within their shadows, men at arms at rest as others assumingly rotated out to defend the walls against the horde attempting to silence this Atlantian dream before its birth could ripple time Rhae felt the concrete power of the man that held a kingdom in thrall against an evil more significant than himself.

"He is both god and man, my dear. His omnipotence is both tangible and intangible." Merlin said as he glanced at Rhae out of the corner of his eye while he lead them towards the towering ziggurat at the city center.

"History has never done any man such a disservice. There is truly no way to understand his wealth without seeing it first hand. I can see this war is as much about power as it is about jealousy." Her head swiveled slowly side to side as her eyes take in everything like it's a Where's Waldo and each piece hidden from history leads her to the final hidden truth; that Waldo, much like Gil and his kingdom, is a savage son of a bitch whose world is created to hide him as well as all of a person's expectations which only release when each figure is found.

"I would tend to agree, though I dare you to say that to his face." Merlin winked with a smile before motioning for her to ascend the steps of heaven that lead to the throne of one of histories greatest legends.

It was hard not to look back and attempt to climb the steps backward just so she could look out at the expanse of the city with a panoramic view, but with no railings and such a steep incline, Rhae settled for what was in front of her which by no means disappointed. With each step, the city laid out like an oasis of human life that ebbed and flowed like a stagnant pond in a light breeze. With only one way in and out visible and a wall so impossible it felt like no natural force could breach it, Rhae began to wondered if the force that brought her here wasn't the same force that she was fighting against. If that was the case, there may be no guarantee she could get home once her reason for being here was resolved.

"The last step, my dear, are you ready, to meet he who summoned you?"

"Is anyone ready to meet both their dream and their demise, Mer? At least when you met Arthur, you had the possibility of knowing he would not be your death. I have no such guarantee." With the last step ascended, she turned to behold the breadth that was the legend as he addressed those who came to seek his guidance.

"It looks like we will have to create an opening; he is such a diligent ruler." Taking her hand the mage steps into the open area below the throne that is elevated by two dozen steps to announce their arrival. "'King Gilgamesh! I, Merlin, Mage extraordinaire, [have brought that which you requested]. You busy?'" (Merlin, ep. 2 Fortress City: Uruk) Pausing briefly to stop only a moment at the foot of the steps leading to the throne, he picked up where he left off. "Yeah, I can see that, so don't worry!" That's when he looks over his shoulder and smiles at Rhae, whose arched eyebrows and slightly disdainful look fall on deaf ears. "Your final summon has arrived physically unscathed." His smile at achieving that which he was sent for reminiscent of a young child proud of its first independent task.

There is no definition more accurate for the phrase seeing is believing than the culmination of emotions and reactions given by Gilgamesh at that moment as he tore his eyes away from the tablet in his lap to acknowledge the group in front of him languidly. With hard, blood-red, soullessly critical eyes, he glared down from his dais non-plussed by the interruption. As several silent seconds went by and his eyes weighed the worth of everyone present, it was easy to feel the depths of his tyranny as it applied an undefined value to the existence and ascribed output of each person before moving to the next.

When each person had been assessed, he crossed his leg and casually leaned on the mailed hand of his right arm as he awaited the answers to the questions one could tell he felt he didn't need to ask.

"'So, you've returned, Merlin the Mage. Welcome. The King is happy to see you.' (Siduri ep: 2 Fortress City: Uruk) Is one of these the person you were sent to retrieve?" Gilgamesh's secretary, off to his right, addresses them.

"It's fine. I understand the situation. You may go, Siduri." (Gilgamesh ep. 2) The king interrupts as he rises.

"King Gilgamesh? Don't tell me..." (Siduri ep. 2) Siduri's panicked voice replies.

"Just as you suspected. I'm going to make a mess of the throne! I'm busy! Too busy to exchange words with you to get to know you." (Gilgamesh ep. 2) Reaching out his golden mailed arm, the claws of his mailed fingers upturned and poised to grasp that which he begins to summon, he calls forth his golden mage tomb written in ancient Sumerian. "Thus, I shall examine your genuineness...through battle! Prepare yourselves!" (Gilgamesh ep. 2).

Faced with the full force of this hybrid reality unarmed and at the king's mercy, Merlin provided the only support he could. Turning to Ana, he implored her kindly, "Ana, sorry, but would you give [her] a hand?" (Merlin ep. 3: The King and His People)

Sighing in frustration though not surprise, Ana calls forth her chained scythe. "So, I'm being forced into a useless fight again. Please die, Merlin." (Ana ep. 3) Grasping the handle of her weapon that is easily as tall as her, she stands at the ready, slightly crouched.

Then the unthinkable, at least to all but Merlin, happens. Placing a hand gently on Ana's shoulder, Rhae gives it a brief squeeze before taking the last three steps to stand at the base of the dias that enthrones a man to whom she would be tied until she could find a way home.

Taking on a arrogant yet intellectual tone she brazenly speaks. "A tyrant after all. And I had been so impressed upon arriving with the humanity you have preserved and created hybrid king. I think my exact words were..." tapping her index finger on her lips as she looked around with exaggerated thought "...History has never done any man such a disservice. There is truly no way to understand his wealth without seeing it first hand. I can see this war is as much about power as it is about jealousy."

Letting that sink in a moment before continuing, Rhae looked for any sign his façade of control had broken. When none can be seen, she pushes forth. "History had defined you as a slaughterer of any who stood in your way, a raper of women and an oppressor of all beneath you. I stand beneath you, armed with only my mind and a sharp tongue. Do you wish to battle an unarmed woman with the power I have no hope of defending against, or shall we talk as I still believe you are the civilized infophile I know you do be." Then she holds out her hand, palm up, awaiting his response as her eyes lock onto his.

Time passes slowly, the only movement a slight breeze that ruffles the fabrics attached to the walls. Eventually, the tablet disappears, and the king descends before taking her hand.

"You honor me, Majesty." Then Rhae falls on bended knee to kiss the knuckles of his hand, before releasing it and rising.

Staring only at her, Gilgamesh addresses Merlin. "Is it true you brought me a foreign prostitute instead of the warrior I summoned?"

Anticipating some form of insult, Rhae smiled only slightly at the one chosen from his repertoire of degrading terms.

"Though she may seem worthless your Majesty, she has seen things and knows things no normal person should."

"I see. In that case, we shall have to force whatever she possesses out of her." Raising his mailed hand, still not breaking eye contact, he opens a golden portal allowing what many believe to be the real Holy Grail of this time to materialize into his hand. "You know what this is, correct?" He asks as he takes the legendary chalice into his free hand.

"I do," Rhae confirms.

"Then you are aware it carries a vast array of powers no man should possess, especially those with evil intent."

"I am."

"Good. Then I command you to touch it. Only then will we know if you are a whore of the gods or a warrior summoned to fight a foreign siege."

Setting her lips, Rhae nods. "If that is what you wish. There are many questions and no answers as of yet, and since I can't be sure you will surrender them willingly, I see this as my only option." That's when she reaches her hand out, and the room waits with bated breath. The only sound is silence until a crack of lightning whose bolt lances across the hall from above pierces Rhae's hand the moment before it would have made contact with the Grail; trapping her hand motionlessly in the air before the cup as the laughter of an unseen goddess fills the room.


	7. The Crusader Class Servant: Enter Warrior of Uruk

"Such a fool, you are King of Uruk! I knew if I waited around long enough, you would show me that which I desire. Now, be a good girl and give that grail to me. Such a worthless peasant like you wouldn't even know how to use such a divine treasure should you be allowed to touch it." The female voice carries haute and menace, laced with greed that drips like saliva from the lips of a starving man faced with a feast.

At first, it was hard to both try to process the pain she should be in and validate her suspicions on the owner of the voice that loomed from above and behind her; a problem that soon began to resolve as excruciating pain ripped through her body and mind as the bolt began tearing through flesh, tendon, and skin as it traveled up and out of her hand vertically. Horrified at both the sight and rendered vocally stupid by the overwhelming pain, her eyes locked on the king's face as her tear-stained face sought for understanding while her body fell to its knees, buckling under the strain.

Locking eyes for only a second, Gilgamesh made a disgusted noise before staring in the direction Rhae assumed held the culprit of this previous visit.

"Do you think I didn't already know of your fleeting presence false goddess? Being a product of a rogue religious sect acting on their own accord, you have become a burr in my side. Do you think to challenge me in my own home where my power reigns supreme?" He asks, still holding the Grail steadily in his mail free hand.

"What is there to challenge? You have only that worthless mage and a pint-sized pipsqueak to defend you as your champion whore comes to kneel at your feet, unable to tolerate such a minor amount of pain. You also know if you release that grail, my bolt will slice through her hand before returning to me. You are no more than a rabbit in my trap, King of the Sand. You would do well to hand it over before someone gets irreversibly hurt."

Though the pain was unbearable, there was only one thing even more intolerable; an ignorant threat from some body-snatching cunt who couldn't also keep her personalities straight. Gritting her teeth as she dug her nails into her thigh, trying to get her mind to focus on a completely different pain, Rhae retorted. "Better to be a champion whore in the service of her king then an artificial goddess without fame or followers because even my sect can't get shit right." Gasping as the bolt shoots up half an inch at her rudeness, Rhae continues. "I would rather suffer a thousand lashes as his whore than give a god damn copper to your worthless ass Ishtar."

Then her eyes lock onto Gilgamesh's, who stares at her with a raised eyebrow. "Try not to be as worthless as her and hold the damn cup still." She growls before her final retort. "Let's see if it's always better out than in." Then biting her lip, Rhae jerks her hand forward, forcing the bolt deeper into the flesh of her hand, feeling only numbness as her fingers slide uselessly against the surface of the grail a few inches from her hand.

In that instant, where fingers touch cold metal Rhae's conscious is enveloped in a golden light that pours out of the cup and surrounds the room. Shielding her eyes, it takes several moments before she can lower her hands and stare into the familiar face of the green-haired man.

Standing at similar heights with flowing green hair dressed in a long white loose tunic with a thin gold chain around his neck that ends in a diamond reminiscent of his chains of heaven, he stands as the only thing of dimension in a white-washed world similar to the one from her nightmare.

"Do not be afraid." His quiet voice states as he smiles sweetly. "I am the beginning to his end. Though we are the same, we are two halves of a coin tainted by different greed's. Where mine was founded on love and respect, he was founded on hate and jealousy. I will not hurt you; in fact, I am here to help you. I take it; you touched the grail?"

Staring skeptically, muscles tense despite knowing she has nowhere to go, Rhae watched the person in front of her carefully. "I did."

"Then you are here to receive your power, or in essence, mine. Is that what you wish?"

"What I wish is to go home."

"I can understand that. Unfortunately, until the war is won, you will not be able to. The fact is, you were summoned unconventionally by the king."

"Unconventionally, huh? How unconventionally?" Rhae crosses her arms and glares.

"Back when I died in the King's arms, he released a curse meant to seal his fate to another life where he would regain his kingdom, making it flourish in all the ways he failed to do the first time. Unfortunately, larger forces were at play, and the curse escaped our time to transcend the fabric of the cosmos itself. In so doing, it came to your world and attached itself to you. Being born from my soul and Gil's hatred, it was a thing crafted of unearthly magic not able to be dispelled by time or reality. As such, when the time came, he summoned that curse back, bringing whomever it attached to back with it. That person was you instead of a hero of time it was meant to attach to."

Frowning, Rhae grumbles. "Great. He's going to love knowing I am some 'foreign whore' as he put it instead of the warrior he summoned."

The green-haired man laughed lightly. "That is not entirely true. It would seem somewhere in your past you have quite a hero's lineage. Shall I show you?"

"Will it hurt?" Her skepticism clear.

"Not in the least. But you have to let me touch you." He winked much like Merlin.

Scrunching her eyes, Rhae sighed. "Don't try to kill me. I'm trusting you when you say you two aren't the same."

"We are, and we aren't, but I assure you the me trapped in Gilgamesh's heart is not the one who haunts you, of that, I promise."

Nodding, Rhae walks to stand in front of the man.

"Now, Rhae, traveler of time and space, I am Enkidu. I stand as a projection in front of you from the soul inside you that houses Gilgamesh's curse. As a piece of both him and you, I am here to bestow your latent power onto you that has been passed down from your lineage. Do you accept the power and the burden that comes with it until this war is over, and you can be returned to your own time?"

"If it means I can pummel that dumb bitch goddess in the face, then absolutely."

Snickering softly, Enkidu places his hand on Rhae's shoulder. "Then, by the power vested in me as the vessel of the king's love for his country and his pride, I grant you power never before seen in the war for the grail. May you become the warrior you are destined to be." Then kissing her forehead lightly, he steps back and smiles. "Be well warrior of the king. Give him my regards when you return."

Then Rhae watches as his body slowly turns into fractals of light before disappearing completely.

 _"All you have to do is believe, and you will become the sword and shield of Uruk_." Enkidu's final ghostly quiet words ring in her head before her eyes involuntarily close, and she is returned to the world and the pain from before. As the pain hits her full force, the anger inside at everything that has happened since arriving here overtakes her.

"You ignorant, obsessives, shallow, BITCH!" She screams as she wrenches her hand the rest of the way from the confines of the bolt before it envelops in a soft gray light that removes the pain and seals the wound allowing her enough feeling to grab the bolt in hand now covered in medieval knights mail and chuck it back at the offending Ishtar. "How dare you threaten the king and this kingdom with your petty and selfishly juvenile plans. The grail is not some childs toy for the base. Return from whence you came before I unleash the true power of God onto you."

"Bitch! Petulant! Shallow! Juvenile! Who the hell are you to judge you, overgrown armored whore! It's a little late to play Joan of Arc, don't you think?" Ishtar screams as she readies her body-sized golden and black gilded longbow.

"I am Rhae, the king's Crusader. Champion of the faith and guardian of this countries safety. Should you wish to test your might, I will wipe you off the face of this world, leaving no trace of your existence and no hope for your revival."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Ishtar smirks with derision. "You aren't even armed. One-shot from my bow will pierce you clean through."

Smirking Rhae retorts, "Only the faithless are so ignorant." That's when she raises her left hand in a fist to meet her right hand, whose flat palm she presses her fist into. With eyes closed, she envisions her weapon of choice, allowing its hilt to manifest in her fist before pulling it out of her open palm. "With this sword, I shall smite." Then she slams the point into the hardened clay floor before raising her forearm above her head. "With this shield, I will defend." Then she lowers the escutcheon decorated with a large red cross backdropped on a field of white enamel, so it comes to rest in front of her chest, whose overlaid white tabard is also decorated with a bright red cross. "Fire your arrows goddess of arrogance I will not falter nor will this kingdom fall for I am the wall against your tyranny and you the demon hell wishes to recall."


	8. Goddess-0 / Whore-1

Scowling as she clicks her tongue, Ishtar's eyes dart between the now fully equipped warrior whore, the king, the pimp and his loli before pulling her face together into one of smug indifference as she flips her hair imperiously. "Drag me to hell? You couldn't even drag me to bed with that get-up. And that stick you are pointing at me? I'd spear you dead within a ..."

Then a war cry erupts from Rhae before a golden light radiates outward, washing her in the colors of the noonday sun. Lit with a soft ethereal full-body halo, she grabs the hilt of the sword in the ground and yanks it up before knocking it back much the way you would a javelin one wishes to throw. Caught totally by surprise, all Ishtar can do is watch in bewilderment as the sword seconds later launches towards her and misses; lodging itself within the solid foundation of the column to her right.

"You crazy bitch! That almost hit me! Do you even know what you are doing with that thing!" She yelled.

Taking her distraction for all it was worth, Rhae took a shot in the dark and looked towards Ana before screaming her name in her mind hoping against the laws of reality that her cries would reach her. "ANA!"

When the small girl jumped and looked towards her, Rhae smiled inwardly before barking out the next request. "I need you to use your chain scythe! Wrap it around the hilt of the sword quickly then brace yourself!"

Too flustered to do otherwise at the random request for teamwork, Ana did as she was requested, bracing seconds before Rhae jumped onto the chain and ran up its incline to perch herself on the flat of the sword effectively positioning herself within arms reach of the belligerent Goddess.

Having timed it almost perfectly so Ishtar would turn to express her distress at the exact moment Rhae would be face to face with her at the Goddesses level, Ishtar's face set a speed record as it flashed between affronted anger to complete startlement when her complaint fell on bemused eyes flashing with challenge.

Jumping backward and almost falling off her bow, she jetted several feet backward, placing her directly over the king himself unknowingly. "How dare you! Prepare to feel my wrath!" Then she knocked her bow as Rhae smiles and points down; still perched on the hilt of her sword like Altair from Assassins Creed as he pans the city from a high vantage point.

Eyes going wide as the king clears his throat, Ishtar slowly looks down into the unamused eyes of the most powerful mage in Uruk. Screeching behind closed teeth, she darts at a diagonal away from us both; hitting a column at a solid speed causing her to lose her balance once again before fumbling back on and screaming, "You haven't seen the last of me! Just you wait for whore!" With her final challenge enacted, she jets out of the open ziggurat and into the horizon without looking back.

Looking down over her shoulder without losing her own balance, Rhae thanks Ana in her mind; the girl nodding in ascent before pulling down her hood and shuffling father into the shadows. With some semblance of normalcy returning, Rhae scans her options for getting down.

"If you need, I can catch you." Merlin's saintly voice calls to her.

"Go die Merlin." Rhae takes a line from Ana before mentally saying fuck it and hopping lightly off the edge; landing with no injury, as she had hoped, despite the more than three-foot drop. Standing, she looks up at her sword still stuck in the wall. Going for broke, she raises her left hand, her sword hand, palm open before sharply closing it. With the fist complete, the sword materializes back in her hand; an act she quickly makes use of.

Storming towards Gilgamesh whose arms remain crossed over his bare chest, her face contorts into one of bridled anger. "It would seem you have quite a lot to tell me, caster king. Why don't we start with why the fuck you have the real grail." That's when the sword rises and comes to rest a hairs breath away from his throat right below his chin. "I am not feeling very generous at the moment so I would oblige if I were you."

Flashing an arrogant challenging smile he bites back, "It is against the rules for a servant to kill its master, though I'm sure you know that already mongrel."

Before Rhae can go tit-for-tat Merlin chimes in, "It would seem, your majesty, that there is a snag in that logic. You see, Rhae isn't a servant."

Not moving a muscle, the smirk was quickly replaced with a grimace of deathly intent, Gil's eyes lock on Merlin. "What do you mean, mage, and speak quickly. I tire of this bluff."

"I somehow doubt she is bluffing highness. You see, Rhae isn't a servant because she isn't a warrior of history. Being summoned by unconventional means, she seems to have inherited the heroic lineage innate to her family. As such, she is her own master and must be treated as if she were no different than you, minus the difference in your status of course."

Shifting angry eyes back to her, Gil snarls. "Not a single day will pass that I will allow some savage to stand on equal footing with me."

That's when Rhae smiles viciously, "Not even a savage who possesses the soul of your beloved Enkidu?"

It was as if the very wind itself stopped the moment the lancer's name was mentioned. After several long moments, where Gilgamesh's eyes attempted to bore into the very soul of the woman in front of him, he replied, "It would seem I am not the only one who needs to explain themselves. For now, I suggest, we put our feelings aside and the present on the table." Then his mailed hand reaches up; his fingers wrapping around the blade with dull clinks before Rhae allows the blade to be lowered.

"Siduri! Bring food and drink to my chamber. I wish to be left alone until this meeting is concluded." Gilgamesh commands as he releases the blade and walks towards the stairs Rhae had ascended from earlier.

"Yes, my king." She replies meekly before heading off in the opposite direction.


	9. The History of the Fallen and the Few

"Though I do not know the intimate details of the reality that we find ourselves in, I will tell you what I know." His voice speaking to the world outside his window as if the answers he sought and the visions he could see were intimately aware of each other and able to perceive the story alongside them. "When Enkidu died, I began my quest to find eternal life. Eventually, that quest brought me to the underworld, which is where I saw in a vision the end of Uruk as the result of an otherworldly being known as Tiamat. Not wishing my people to die or my kingdom to fall into hands worse than my own, I returned to Uruk from Kutha where the door to the underworld lay, and warned them."

Pouring first a glass of wine for himself then Rhae, an act that completely baffled her, Gilgamesh took a drink before continuing.

"That day that I warned my people was the day Gilgamesh the Archer died and Gilgamesh the Caster appeared to lead the people to a future not contrived by false destiny. Staged beautifully by Siduri, we prevented the kingdom from falling into unnecessary chaos. Regrettably, I was unable to prevent the creation and bombardment of the demon horde. It was during the first appearances of the demons outside of Uruk that I ordered Babylon to be dismantled and used to build the wall you saw upon arrival to seal off the north from the rest of Mesopotamia."

Taking another drink, Gilgamesh turns to lean on the wall by the window he has come to stand by as his eyes meet Rhae's.

"Foreseeing the need for additional forces, and seeing their source coming from an entity known as Chaldea, I summoned Merlin whose imprisonment in Avalon was bypassed due to this era existing before his birth, making him technically dead, and thus able to be summoned. After him came the warriors Ushiwakmaru, Musashibou Benkei, Leonidas, Amakusa Shirou, Fuuma Kotarou, Ibaraki-douji, and Tomeo Gozen. Leonidas commands the efforts against the Demonic Beasts and trains both the soldiers of Uruk and the Northern Wall to be a self-sufficient force. The other Servants summoned to help defend Uruk, though Shirou and Kotarou perished alongside the scouting parties I sent to investigate the jungle surrounding Ur and Eridu. Tomoe died killing Girtablilu, the general of the Demonic Beasts. Merlin eventually encountered Medusa in the Cedar Forest, and tricked her into a contract that sealed her Divinity, which is why you see her as that child."

Then he finishes off his wine before opening a portal and depositing the cup inside it.

"With so many dead and close to eighty percent of the populace laid to waste by the forces we now face, I turned to the power I had released that day Enkidu died. Though my ability to see the future had shown me enacting the power of the curse would provide me the chance to thwart the horde that terrorizes my city, it did not relinquish the secrets of what that chance would entail."

"That doesn't explain the most important parts." Rhae glared at him from her chair at the small, intricately carved table located a dozen feet from the king's position.

"And those are?" Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why do you have the real grail, why are demonic beasts being created if they are not native to this timeline if you have it, and why do I even need to be here if you have the real thing? It should allow you infinite power shouldn't it?"

Smiling as he bows his head in thought, Gilgamesh's voice replies thoughtfully. "I see. I guess you would have realized it was real if it actually gave you the powers you are now endowed with." Pushing off the wall, he walks to the table and sits down; casually leaning back with one leg crossed as his bare armrests limp on the table. "Do you really think the man that possesses all the treasures of the world wouldn't have the grail?"

Rolling her eyes, Rhae sighs. "Stop ingratiating yourself you pompous prick and answer my questions or we are done and I'm letting this world burn."

"Is that so? Won't you burn with it?" His voice tinged with amusement.

"Not if I find a way back home. I imagine there are enough priestesses with stupid ideas left to figure out something."

"Gambling your life like that seems like such a waste." Taking an apple from the bowl at the table, he rolls it over the wooden surface absentmindedly.

"It's mine to gamble, NOW ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!" Forgetting herself briefly she yells.

"You would do well, mongrel, to remember who you are speaking to." His voice was colder than ice and his tone as sharp as the claws crafted onto his mailed hand.

Pouting, Rhae sighs heavily but says no more.

Satisfied she would tame her insolence, he continued. "I cannot say as to why or how the demonic beasts are being created. I also can only assume my curse was successful in bringing you here because the promise it was built on is craving fulfillment." That's when the index finger of his mailed hand pierces brutally through the apple on the table startling Rhae; her body jumping slightly in the chair.

"Which leads me to my question." There was no humor or tolerance in his eyes as he suddenly rose and leaned over the table's surface to get into her face. "What did you mean when you said you housed the soul of Enkidu?"

Gulping, Rhae knew she could not and should not try to hold back anything regarding what had transpired after she had touched the grail. Scooting up slightly in her chair, she locked eyes with the king and did her best not to cower under his intense gaze.

"I am also not sure how any of this is possible, what I can tell you is this."

Starting with the nightmare, Rhae told the story all the way up to and through her moments after she opened her eyes and became endowed with the powers she now felt lay dormant inside her. The entire time the king listened quietly and thoughtfully, giving no sign he cared one way or another about what she said. When finally the story completed, she felt suddenly hollow and spent.

That's when a knock came at the door. "Your highness, if I may?" Merlin's softy voice breaking the unrealized tension in the room.

"If you must." The king's voice was suddenly tired and tight.

Opening the door, Merlin nodded to the king before walking towards Rhae, who had begun to fall asleep in the chair. "You know, highness, she isn't one of your seasoned warriors. You can't push her beyond her limits, though I know you both have many questions that need answering." Gathering her up in his arms, her head lolling onto his chest, Merlin smiles down at her tired face. "Shall we let her rest a while? I am sure she will bounce back with enough energy to give even you a challenge."

Stifling a soft bark, Gilgamesh waves the mage away before turning to look back out the window as the pair exits quietly.

With the room finally empty of distraction, Gilgamesh turns inward. To think his curse would live so prominently in another's body. He thought to himself as he pondered how such a thing was even possible. Curses were meant to possess the body they attached to not coexist with. That meant the answer lies in the nature of Enkidu's soul. Being completely pure of heart without sin until he met Gilgamesh, the curse held an element of the divine untouched by the hatred that propelled it. As such, it was not tainted by the anger that bound the curse and Enkidu's soul for the time it took to find a host.

That didn't explain how a more tangible version of the lancer had come to exist beyond the bounds of the underworld. Then a thought occurred to him. Rising quickly, he went in search of Siduri. If his hunch was correct, the answer lay buried beneath the sands of the cliff he had held his dying friend at that night two lives ended and a brand new nightmare began.


End file.
